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Celebrate Performers: MICappella

November 18th, 2010 | News, Views

MICapella is one of six acts performing at Celebrate! AWARE’s 25th Birthday Party. Founder and vocal percussionist Peter Huang speaks to AWARE’s Debbie Sim about rocking the a capella genre and singing in seven (soon-to-be eight) languages.

You claim not to be an a capella group but a “vocal rock band”. What’s the difference?
We’re a vocal rock band as opposed to the traditional barbershop doowop idea of a cappella. We try to take a cappella to the next level and to make it more listenable to mainstream audiences. This has been at the back of my mind ever since I first heard an American group called M-Pact more than 10 years ago. After a few years of living, studying and working as a producer overseas, I came back and found like-minded a cappella lovers who share this vision of rocking out, a cappella style.

You have Mandarin, Hokkien and English songs in your repertoire. Any other languages we should know about?
We actually sing in a wide variety of languages such as Malay (all-time favourite Bengawan Solo). We’ve also done Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese and hopefully Korean soon!

What makes you want to support AWARE? Any particular cause you’re passionate about?
One of AWARE’s roles is to be an avenue for victims of rape and spousal abuse to know their rights and how they can and should stand up against their perpetrators. This is so important in a society that is somewhat prideful. So many times, the trauma goes unnoticed because the first reaction is to cover up the pain. In supporting AWARE, we hope to encourage people to be more conscious and attentive to their surroundings and how they can prevent it from happening to loved ones or even themselves.

What does AWARE mean to you?
Empowerment and protection for women and children to be able to make a stand and live for themselves in the already high living standards and pressures in Singapore. The most important thing is that people are made aware of their rights so that they, or should I say, we, can fight for what is right.

What can the crowd expect from your performance at Celebrate?
The crowd can expect to hear the human voice in an unexpected way.
We hope what you’ll take away from our performance is this: that when it comes to your voice, the possibilities are limitless.

Read other interviews with Lunarin, Baracuda Batucada, Like A Band and Aarthi Sankar.